The International Legal Order's Colour Line
Racism, Racial Discrimination, and the Making of International Law
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:19th Sep '23
£91.00
Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.
Prior to the twentieth century, international law was predominantly written by and for the 'civilised nations' of the white Global North. It justified doctrines of racial inequality and effectively drew a colour line that excluded citizens of the Global South and persons of African descent from participating in international law-making while subjecting them to colonialism and the slave trade. The International Legal Order's Colour Line narrates this divide and charts the development of regulation on racism and racial discrimination at the international level, principally within the United Nations. Most notably, it outlines how these themes gained traction once the Global South gained more participation in international law-making after the First World War. It challenges the narrative that human rights are a creation of the Global North by focussing on the decisive contributions that countries of the Global South and people of colour made to anchor anti-racism in international law. After assessing early historical developments, chapters are devoted to The League of Nations, the adoption and implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the debates within UNESCO on the notion of race itself, expansion of crimes against humanity to cover peacetime violations, as well as challenges to apartheid in South Africa. At all stages, the focus lies on the role played by those who have been the victims of racial discrimination, primarily the countries of the Global South, in advancing the debate and promoting the development of new legal rules and institutions for their implementation. The International Legal Order's Colour Line provides a comprehensive history and compelling new approach to the history of human rights law.
In mainstream scholarship, international law shed its racist past in the twentieth century, embracing instead, justice and humanity. William Schabas masterfully shows how the true story is much more complex. Through meticulous, detailed, and informative narrative, Schabas shows how much of the early history of the pillars of modern international law, while paying lip service to anti-discrimination, retained traces of "the leitmotif of colonialism" and its racist past. More importantly, the book illustrates how, in their struggle against racism and the pursuit of mainstreaming anti-discrimination, it was States of the Global South against the resistance of the "gentle civilisers" from the North, that pushed international law to the place where it rejects racism - or at least overt racism. * Prof. Dire Tladi, University of Pretoria, former chairman of the UN International Law Commission *
Yet another powerful offering from the dean of eminent scholars who treat human beings as the central subjects of international law. Professor Schabas's The International Legal Order's Colour Line is an essential volume on the bookshelf of every law school library, lawyer, and law student. * Chile Eboe-Osuji, PhD, LLM, former President of the International Criminal Court *
The International Legal Order's Colour Line traces a gnashed scar through slavery, the slave trade, colonialism and apartheid that still festers in the contemporary guise of racial discrimination. Schabas simultaneously has extracted from the official records of the League of Nations and the United Nations the minutiae of the resistance and resilience of Africans, Asians and the African diaspora against the racist colonial and colonial settler regimes and the ideological persistence of racial superiority of these formerly called "civilized nations". Bracing the cover is internationalist Paul Robeson, who mid-century, with other African Americans, demanded the immediate functionality of the UN human rights systems for all peoples. Schabas confirms that the demand is unremitting.
The International Legal Order's Colour Line traces a gnashed scar through slavery, the slave trade, colonialism and apartheid that still festers in the contemporary guise of racial discrimination. Schabas simultaneously has extracted from the official records of the League of Nations and the United Nations the minutiae of the resistance and resilience of Africans, Asians and the African diaspora against the racist colonial and colonial settler regimes and the ideological persistence of racial superiority of these formerly called "civilized nations". Bracing the cover is internationalist Paul Robeson, who mid-century, with other African Americans, demanded the immediate functionality of the UN human rights systems for all peoples. Schabas confirms that the demand is unremitting. * Patricia Sellers, Faculty of Law and Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford *
The International Legal Order's Colour Line is altogether impressive for its comprehensive historical account of international law's underbelly. Schabas leaves nearly no stone unturned. This is a well-researched body of historical work that honors the voices from the Global South that leveled and continues to level coordinated challenges at a body of law that had gone uncontested for the length of their oppression. * Edith Amoafoa-Smart, Harvard Human Rights Journal *
ISBN: 9780197744475
Dimensions: 242mm x 163mm x 37mm
Weight: 785g
496 pages